Thinking of Burt and Hal right now.....

[steveo_1965]

Strain of melody going thru my head in the key of Dflat...
"Tell me now....is it so...don't let. me. be. the. last ta know.....da daaaaaaa"
: )

[Hank]

Doesn't get much better than that !!

[blueonblue]

.........my hands...are shakin'...don't let...my..heart..keep..breakin'

Quite possibly, the most beautiful song Burt and Hal ever wrote.....


"blue"

[steveo_1965]

Hi to BLue, and thanks for the post!

[Rio]

don't let. me. be. the. last ...

The things I hear in Burt!... One of them.

Jorge Vercillo is one (Bzilian) that does that kind of thing.

[An Enormous BB Fan]

steveo_1965, I know what you mean. You'll be doing something and all of a sudden, in your head, you'll hear a Burt and Hal song. But here is my question to you: you knew for sure that you were hearing the song in Db? How can you be sure? Do you have perfect pitch to begin with?

Anyhow, I know that I can hear a song in my head in a particular key -- I just don't know what key it is... until I go to the piano. In other words, I'll go to the piano and keep hitting the note until I get the one in my head. Then, at that point, I can easily figure out the key. But my problem is figuring out the chords. That I can't do.... although, of course, if it's a simple I, IV, V kind of thing, then I won't have a problem. But, as you know, Burt doesn't compose like that, thank goodness. Can you hear any composition by Burt and know the chords? Do you know the chords before you go to the piano or whatever instrument you use?

[steveo_1965]

Thanks for asking a "neat" question(hearing exact pitches in one's mind)....I once was talking with a female violin player about that, and she said "you starting hearing a pitch so many times, that you can recgonize it"...she is right...when I was a younger lad, and in a "copy" band(performing tunes of the day)I practiced trying to hear in my mind the opening pitch of "Kansas City"
by the Beatles and could hear the opening guitar riff, I got amazingly good at mentally
hearing the top "G" notes of George Harrison's triplets on the guitar. I would go check on the piano.......I do not have perfect pitch, and my brain can hear things that are supposed to be in Db but in reality my mind is hearing it a half tone lower in "C"....
So, when I said I'm hearing the tune in Db....It's approximate(it could have been C.
Another footnote...(correct me if I'm wrong) I think Herb Aplert Recorded This Guys
In Love in Db, but I think Burt recorded it on his Make IT Easy On Yourself album in "C"...
Just rambling now, Enormous!;)

Steveo
p.s.The answer to your last 2 questions is more or less yes....(not perfect , but close)

[An Enormous BB Fan]

steveo_1965, unfortunately, I could hear a song a thousand times and, if I start singing it the next day, I will not be in the right key. I'll hear the song but I won't hear the key. However, if only, say, an hour goes by, and I don't hear any other music in the interim, I more than not would be in the same key. But unlike that lady violin player, I will never in a million years be able to hear any piece of music and recognize the key. I don't believe that that can be taught either. I think that's an "either you have it or you don't" kind of thing. I'll never forget reading about a guy who had perfect pitch, fell and hit his head, and then didn't have perfect pitch anymore. And he was okay in every other way, too. The man was a Broadway composer of some note, too, but I have forgotten his name. It was in the NY Times a number of years ago. I've read about that in other cases as well.

You can plan the piano on the internet to find your key from youtube if you want. Here is the link:

http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/javapiano/javapiano.htm

I don't know what keys the songs you mentioned are in. I do know that the original sheet music for This Guy's In Love With You is in Eb, but that doesn't mean that Herb Alpert was in that key of course. Wouldn't it kind of surprise you if Burt, himself, played anything in "C"? It would me.

I know that certain musicians can hear enormous differences between keys. Laura Nyro saw each key in a different color. And I've heard musicians say that they don't like a particular song in a particular key... that it doesn't sound right in, say, Bb.... but sounds great in G, for example. (I'm not talking about a singer, of course.) I, on the other hand, can discern no difference between keys when hearing a song. I'm sure that 99.9% of people can't either. If they hear, say, "Pacific Coast Highway", it wouldn't make a difference if it were in C or Ab.

That's just terrific that you can get the chords without needing the sheet music. That has bothered me more than anything over the years.

Do you know the proper chords to "Danger" by any chance? I consider that to be one of Burt's most incredible compositions… and, yet, the song seems to unknown and un-talked about anywhere. I can't imagine that Burt was anything other than totally thrilled with it after he recorded it.

Here's an example of something I love that Burt is so great at: In the song "The Balance of Nature", when the lyric goes "Day by day, we search for love, the way we all were born to do, not one by one, but two by two." I just love what Burt does there. Let's say that the song is in the key of "F". Then, on "Day by day", he switches briefly into Ab and does a I, VI, IV in Ab, but on the VI (Fm7 chord), the note of the song is a Db (“we”) – so there’s real tension there since the Db note is nowhere in the Fm7 chord, and on “love” (as in “we search for love”), he’s back to the Db note (while still in Fm7—you can really hear the tension when Burt sings that one note, too, between that note and the chord—it almost sound “off key”, but it’s not – it’s simply the work of a musical genius) and then the chord drops to the IV (Db chord) for “the way we” and then on “all” he goes back to the key of “F” with the Bb/C chord (or C11). I loved that Bridge from the moment I heard the song. And that's why.

Also, in "Finder's of Lost Loves", Burt changes the key in a most unusual place in the song and you don't even know it… it's that seamless. It's in the sheet music, too, that the key changes… it's not simply done with sharps, flats and accidentals (as the Bridge in "The Balance of Nature" is done).

[steveo_1965]

Enormous,
Pianisically and Orchestrally, there are certain keys that lend themselves to a piece of music
better than others, based on the song or piece of music itself.......(the tessitura or lay of the melody, and perhaps the chord changes)
Unfortuneately, printed sheet music is not always in the key that sounds the best, or that
it was originally written in...that part has improved over the years a bit, with transcribers paying more attention to the key the recorded song is recorded in and trying to perpetuate it.
In the case of This Guys In Love, I believe the Eb key may have been based on it's
original inception(written for Dionne, perhaps)...the first to record it was a british singer named Danny Williams as That Guys In Love With YOu on an album......but I don't know what key he sang it in.
On Balance of Nature, it is a wonderful thing when he switches keys..I love it, although I don't remember anything about the chords there..It's just great. tho.
I've not heard Danger, so I can't comment...Interesting story about the Broadway composer who hit his head...and lost his ablility to hear perfect pitch.
You mentioned Burt writing or not writing in "C"..well, Im not sure, but some of the singers that have recorded definitive versions of his tunes did record them in that key...Case in point...
Wishin' and Hopin"-Dusty Springfield, I believe...and that is a great great sounding record!
It's either in Bb or C, can't remember, but I seem to recall it in "C"..also Dionnes and Burt's "Walk On By" starts out in the relative minor of C..A minor, although I know the song is in "F"....cause it winds up centered around that dissonant piano riff....
One of the things that fascinates me are arrangers who write for variety shows(not many of those today, if any!)..they find the
key of the artist(s)...often a duo, on like the Dean Martin Show...and seem to be able to inject the right orchestral voicings and instrument obligatos that sound wonderful...also the switching of "keys" in medleys, and the smooth way they do it...2 giants of that would be J. Hill and van Alexander, both who wrote for the Martin Show....if you go to youtube and listen to Dean Martin Show clips "Dean and Bing" medley or The "Love Medley" between Dean and Petula Clark, those charts are masterful !

Steveo